Welcome to Hail Alley

Why Colorado’s Front Range Is Tough on Cars

If you’re new to Colorado, especially the Front Range and especially Colorado Springs, you may not have been fully read in on the extreme weather we see in this part of the country. No, we don’t deal with hurricanes or many tornadoes, but our proximity to the mountains while also sitting right where the eastern plains begin creates some very “western” weather behavior.

We may as well get the ugly truth out of the way up front: unfortunately, there is not a heck of a lot you can do as a driver to completely save your Subaru from busted windows and body damage, but don’t lose hope just yet.

Why Colorado Gets So Much Hail

Colorado’s Front Range gets frequent hail because the region sits amongst some powerful weather ingredients: warm, moist air from the plains and Gulf region smashing into cool, dry air spilling off the Rockies. Those mountains force the unstable air upward, creating the kind of dramatic afternoon thunderstorms that anyone in Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, or Denver knows all too well.

Since we already live at higher elevation along the Front Range, storms reach freezing temperatures rapidly, allowing ice to form with surprising ease. Strong updrafts inside these storms repeatedly lift baby hailstones through supercooled water, adding layer after layer of ice until the stones become too heavy and crash back to earth.

The combination of mountain-triggered lift, sharp temperature contrasts, dry and moist air mixing, strong wind shear, and high elevation makes Colorado’s Front Range a very special kind of nightmare for your Subaru’s body panels and windshield.

It’s surreal sitting through a balmy 80 or 90 degree afternoon near Pikes Peak only to have fist-sized hail suddenly hurtling out of an angry sky before melting in the street ten minutes later.

What Hail Means for Your Subaru

Well, obviously it can feel like we’re rolling the dice every time we see storm clouds piling up over the mountains. The good news is that while we get a tremendous amount of hail during Colorado’s summer storm season, most of it is too small to cause any real damage. But when storms get serious, hail can be incredibly destructive to both vehicles and homes.

If you’ve lived here long enough, you’ve probably seen roofing companies going door-to-door after major storms or traveling paintless dent repair crews setting up shop around town. At our store, we sometimes bring in hail repair specialists for entire summers to repair damaged inventory and customer vehicles. It’s simply part of owning a vehicle along Colorado’s Front Range.

Broken glass, circular dents in sheet metal, chipped paint, and bent trim are all common signs of Colorado hail damage, whether subtle or severe.

Hidden Hail Damage and Trade-Ins

One challenge we constantly face as a Subaru dealer is assessing hail damage on trade-ins because it is not always obvious. Light hail damage is surprisingly common, and sometimes owners genuinely do not realize it is there until the vehicle is inspected closely.

If you’ve been through a hailstorm and do not immediately notice damage, it’s still worth taking a careful look once things calm down. Light hail damage can be surprisingly difficult to spot in direct sunlight, which is why it sometimes becomes an unpleasant surprise later during an insurance claim or trade appraisal.

Look carefully for chipped paint, cracked glass, dents along horizontal surfaces, or damaged trim. Hail that chips or cracks paint can expose metal underneath and eventually lead to rust or larger paint failures later on if ignored.

Insurance and Repairs

The good news is that comprehensive insurance will usually cover hail damage, and most smaller dents can often be repaired without repainting the vehicle through paintless dent repair.

Some owners choose to pocket the insurance payout and leave the damage unrepaired, but eventually that vehicle will be sold or traded in, and the next owner is going to expect either the damage to be repaired or the price to reflect it.

As you might expect, insurance rates in hail-prone parts of Colorado do tend to run a bit higher because of these storms. Still, they are nowhere near high enough that you’d want to skip comprehensive coverage and pay for major hail damage out of pocket. Trust us on that one.

Prevention (Sort Of)

Well… prevention is a little bit of a fantasy, we’re sorry to report. Of course you can garage your vehicle if you are able, but because most storms roll in during the middle of the afternoon, there’s a good chance you’re at work, running errands, or parked somewhere without cover when trouble arrives.

You’ll see people frantically trying to squeeze underneath overpasses on I-25 as hail and rain suddenly bring traffic to a standstill. Honestly, that panic can create hazards that are more dangerous than the storm itself, so your best bet is usually to remain calm, drive carefully, and let insurance handle the aftermath.

Some longtime Colorado residents keep thick cardboard, moving blankets, or carpet remnants on hand to throw over parked vehicles in an effort to minimize the carnage. There are certainly things that can help, but these storms have an uncanny ability to sneak up on people fast.